The Cataclysm Read Online Free Page B

listening apprentice, storing their songs in the
     long dreaming vaults of their memories. But Father thought he was heirless and alone, and
     had written them all - every poem and song and lay, from the edicts to the first shaking
     of the city, down through the dark years unto this time. A dozen lines or so of one verse he had worried over, scratched out, revised, and replaced,
     only to go back to the first version, to his first choice of wording.
    I mouthed the lines, then read them aloud:
    "DOWN IN THE ARM OF CAERGOTH HE RODE: PYRRHUS ALECTO, THE KNIGHT ON THE NIGHT OF BETRA Y ALS. WHEN A FIREBRAND OF BURNING HAD CLOUDED THE STRAITS OF HYLO. LIKE OIL ON WATER, HE SOOTHED THE IGNITED COUNTRY. FOREVER AND EVER THE VILLAGES LEARN HIS PASSAGE IN THE GRAIN OF THE PEASANTRY, LIFE OF THE RAGGED ARMIES. THEY CARRIED HIM BACK TO THE KEEP OF THE CASTLE WHERE PYRRHUS THE LIGHTBRINGER CANCELED THE WORLD BENEATH THE DENIAL OF BATTLEMENTS WHERE HE DIED AMID STONE WITH HIS HOVERING ARMIES.
    FOR SEVENTEEN YEARS THE COUNTRY OF CAERGOTH HAS TURNED AND TURNED IN HIS EMBRACING HAND, A GARDEN OF SHIRES AND HAMLETS AND Lightbringer HISTORY HANGS ON THE PATH OF HIS NAME."
    It was as though Father had never been satisfied. Something had drawn him to these lines
     again and again, as if changing them would . . .
    Would straighten the past, make it true.
    “ 'Tis here, Mother,” I announced, so softly that at first she did not hear, though she
     was staring directly at me as I read.
    She cupped her ear, leaned forward. “ 'Tis in the poem. Or, rather, NOT in the poem.”
     Mother frowned. I knew she saw Orestes in me now-
    poetic and full of contradictions. I tried to be more clear about it.
    “These lines Father wrote and rewrote and worked over are... are the lie. Don't you see,
     Mother? The druidess said that THE PAST IS LIES, AND LIES CAN ALWAYS CHANGE. These are - ”
     I thumbed through the book, looking early and late " - these are the only lines he has
     fretted over.
    “It's as though ... he was trying to ...” I looked at Mother. “... change the lies back to
     the truth.”
    I did not know whether that was so or not. I stepped quietly to the strongbox and took out
     my father's harp, one thick string missing, and held it for a long moment. It fit my hand
     exactly and when I put it down, I could not shake away its memory from my grasp. When I
     looked at Mother again, her eyes had changed. We both knew what I would say next.
    “Yes, I MUST go, but not because they seek me. I will go because I have to find the lost
     song,” I announced. “Father's words are still hiding something.”
    One of the dogs rumbled and rose from the shadows, stretching and sniffing lazily in the
     dwindling firelight. Then his ears perked and he gave a low, angry growl.
    Mother scrambled to her feet and to the door, a confusion of soundless sobs and flickering
     hands. “I know. They're coming,” I said. "I must hurry.
    Finding the truth is saving my life. The druidess said so." I stroked the ears of Mateo,
     the largest of the dogs, who looked up at me solemnly, his thick shoulders pressing against my legs until I staggered a
     little at the weight. I had no thought of how small I was - how things far greater would
     press against me when I stepped across the threshold into the early winter morning.
    Mother moved slowly aside as I passed into the pale sunlight, her fingers brushing softly,
     mutely against my hair. I gave her a smile and a long hug, and she assured me of her own
     safety. In the sled lay an old hide bag, big enough for the harp and the book, a loaf of
     bread, and a wedge of cheese. I tossed everything in and moved off, as quickly and
     silently as I could.
    One of the dogs barked as I lost the cottage behind a cluster of blue AETERNA branches,
     and the high wind shivered faintly at their icicles like the vanished notes of a song.
     Above the hillside nearest my home, four long shadows fell across the